National Republican., 1887-03-31
Through Night to Light,
~ fear not deaths changelessness,

But life's many changes. ."-LYTToN.
Existence on this earthly plane Is but
sensuous seeming, illusory as the Fdtd
Morgana, 1eeting as the wrath Of sum.
mer cloud, but as the swing Of the pendu.
lum in the boundless horology of the uni.
verse. The body is but the shrine OF the
soul, the lamp of the spirit whose flame is
frequently almost quenched for want OF oil,
and flickers as feebly as the light Of the
foolish virgins. There is no death; but
only change. The portals OF the grave
are the golden gates through
which the emancipated soul wings its
fight to higher and better state OF being.
What We denominate death is but the man
Hesitation of divine law which is as i'm
mutable as the chaugeess stars. II is an
indisputable fact that the pagan idea of
death approached nearer the understanding
OF this divine truth than the warped COM
prehensiOn Of the primitive Christians.
Death wac only type6ed by refined aud
delicate symbolism. On the coffin OF Cyp.
selus IT was personifled by two sleeping
twin children, one black and one white,
with crossed legs emblematical OF repose;
these were sleep aud death. Aaother
emblem was that of winged
foot, crushing butterfly in its fight, sig.
nifyiDg departure. Frequently on antique
monuments death was so interlaced with
cupids as TO be scarcely distinguishable
from them. He was represented as Wing.
lese, and in place Of the burning torch, held
an inverted one, which he was extinguish.
ing with his foot. This idealistic portrayal
Of the inevitable robbed death Of half its
terrors and sent the soul on its unknown
journey filled with pleasant and poetical
thoughts. The Thracians glorifed death and
lamented over birth, regarding the former as
merely return to the painless unconscious.
nees from whence 1t came. The early Chris.
tians invested 1t with the gloomy insignia
horn OF years of persecution and suffering.
When they emerged like wild beasts from
their lairs In the catacombs their views on
death were OF the most gloomy description.
This was heightened and used as a weapon
by the priesthood to subjugste the ignorant,
and was supposed to be the punishment
for what was called original sin, over which
IL was presumed we could have no
control. Strange that people who
based their entire religious faith on
the doctrine of immortality should
approach the infinite with shuddering and
distIust. With such belief man should
lie down with as much confidence as an
infant closes its eyes on its mothers breast.
To those who believe in no hereafter should
come the blankness Of despair, the utter
helplessness of avertipg an appalling catas-
trophe. The belief in an immortal state
seems to be heaven born and was implanted
in us in our most rudimentary states of ex-
istence. The eternal ego, the imperlshable
atom, can never die.
The first feeble wall of the newborn in
FAINT appears like a protest against its i'm
prisonment In the dungeon of sense. At
this supreme moment 1t seems to realize
that the roadway Of life is sown with
dragons teeth, which, from time to time,
are transformed into monsters who, with
fiery breath, bar our way to everlasting
truth. We are born, and die with no effort
ON our own part The prince aud the peas
ant alike bow before superior wisdom,
Deity. 2 Our lives are like the
lotos Of the Ganges, which unrolds leaf by
leaf under the potent rays of the sur, which
is thesmile Of the deity. The nighto Of death
overshadows us for brief period, and the
petals Of being are folded in the bosom of
the Omnipotent only to bloom forth again
and again In the glorious effulgenee OF a
brighter day. Yet again and again must
we take on the yestment Of flesh, ever
purgiDg ourselves OF our grosser ele-
ments, ever climbing up the climbing nave,
submerged by turns in the changeful
pillows Of life, until finally, borne on the
highest crest of curling wave, We are
thrown on the breast Of the ineffable and
become part OF the being from which we
emanated. The anterior existence Of the
dragon fly is spent in watery bed; by the
process of evolution ii energies from this
element and takes unto itself an evanescent
form clothed in radiant rainbow tints. It.
could never, even II 1t would, descend into
the depser element from whence it sprang.
A downward fight would be death,
an upward one life. As we progress never
shall we retrograde. The existence Of an
ephemcral insect teaches us the sublime
Lesson of immortality. Hegel says, "the
essential character OF spirit is freedom and
spontaneity, the essential property of
matter is passivity and fatality" Spirit only
is reality. 81 think; therefore, l am, )" was q
profound reflection Of Descarte's. Love is
the breath Of God, the impalpable essence of
the Divine Being. On earth we are as
ephemera floating on the river OF eternity.
lt has no beginning and no ending. "Noth-
ing is commenced or ended says one of the
Vedantic texts. From the abyss Of death
we snatch the crown of victory. Nature
demands the everlasting. The concep-
tion Of continuity is grand thought.
love is dead If It admits the
possibility Of death. Our very sins are
stepping stones to lead us higher. Let us
look forward to what is to come aud not
bemoan what is past Let us seek tho
glory in the present aud our good thoughts
will be as guardian angels teaching us the
way to heaven; our evil ones are demons
tossing us down into hRdes of our own
making. Human life Is but a thing OF n
day, and is
Like the snowflake on the river,